Last entry from the 1950s; Brubeck had been studying music abroad, and having heard some interesting time signatures on his travels wanted to experiment a bit on an album using different time signatures himself. The head of the record company agreed to take a risk on it if Dave and his band first recorded an album of standards.
The Time Out album ended up being panned by critics but loved (and bought) by the public... which led to it being panned further by other critics later on!
For an album of 'odd' time signatures it's pretty smooth sailing, one track is seemingly entirely in the standard 4/4 timing and one in the almost equally common 3/4 (or waltz) time. Even tracks in 6/4 timing make pretty nice, laidback jazz, perfect for those suburban dinner parties. Take 5 is obviously the big success story on the album, the track that saxophonist Paul Desmond wrote, originally intending it to be a drum solo/showcase for Joe Morello, rather than a single. My favourite though is the exciting opener "Blue Rondo a la Turk" with it's somewhat unconventional 9/8 timing (occasionally breaking into 4/4 for the solo sections) making for some really exciting, tight, exotic jazz that feels like it's in constant motion.
I also love how a lot of the jazz albums from this period have interesting paintings as their album covers.
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